The pot-king : the body and technologies of power / / by Jean-Pierre Warnier.

• Superior document: African social studies series, v. 17
• Author: Warnier, Jean-Pierre.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: African social studies series ; v. 17.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (335 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The king of Mankon, in the western highlands of Cameroon, is an agricultural engineer by training, a businessman, and a prominent politician on the national stage. He partakes in the “return of the kings” in the forefront of an African public space. This book analyses the principles of the sacred kingship which lie at the core of the king’s different roles. While showing that the king’s body acts as a container of bodily substances transformed into unifying ancestral life-essence by appropriate means, and bestowed upon its subjects, it develops an innovative approach to bodily and material cultures as an essential component of the technologies of power. In so doing, it departs significantly from previous approaches to sacred kingship.

Table of Contents

Preliminary material / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter One. The human flesh / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Two. The subjects as containers / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Three. The skin-citizens / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Four. \'Smoke must be kept inside the house\' / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Five. The gifts of the dead monarchs / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Six. The closure of the country / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Seven. The king’s three bodies / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Eight. The royal excrement / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Nine. Unbreakable vital piggy-banks / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Ten. De-sexualised bachelors / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Eleven. Theoretical questions, in bodily/material cultures / J.-P. Warnier -- Bibliography / J.-P. Warnier -- The mankon language and its transcription / J.-P. Warnier -- Mankon glossary / J.-P. Warnier -- Indices / J.-P. Warnier.